How to fix error on postgres install ubuntu

Question

I'm struggling to fix an error on install of the postgres client. I'm installing this on a Continuous Integration build, so I need it to install without error. The thing is, the client is installed, and I can even run psql commands, if I ssh into the server, but I need this to run without my touch, which means the install has to happen without error. I've done all the google-foo, and none of the suggestions I've seen on Ubuntu forums, or here seem to point in the right direction. This is all on ubuntu 14.04.

Alternatively, maybe I can just silence the errors, as long as the client is usable.

Following is the error I run into:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

    Reading package lists... Done


    Building dependency tree       


    Reading state information... Done

    The following additional packages will be installed:
      libpq5 postgresql-client-9.6 postgresql-client-common
    Suggested packages:
      postgresql-9.6 postgresql-doc-9.6
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
      libpq5 postgresql-client postgresql-client-9.6 postgresql-client-common
    0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 7 not upgraded.
    Need to get 1494 kB of archives.
    After this operation, 6121 kB of additional disk space will be used.

    Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libpq5 amd64 9.6.7-0+deb9u1 [132 kB]

    Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 postgresql-client-common all 181+deb9u1 [79.0 kB]

    Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 postgresql-client-9.6 amd64 9.6.7-0+deb9u1 [1228 kB]

    Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 postgresql-client all 9.6+181+deb9u1 [55.7 kB]

    Fetched 1494 kB in 0s (55.5 MB/s)
    debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
    Selecting previously unselected package libpq5:amd64.
    (Reading database ... 31433 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack .../libpq5_9.6.7-0+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
    Unpacking libpq5:amd64 (9.6.7-0+deb9u1) ...
    Selecting previously unselected package postgresql-client-common.
    Preparing to unpack .../postgresql-client-common_181+deb9u1_all.deb ...
    Unpacking postgresql-client-common (181+deb9u1) ...
    Selecting previously unselected package postgresql-client-9.6.
    Preparing to unpack .../postgresql-client-9.6_9.6.7-0+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
    Unpacking postgresql-client-9.6 (9.6.7-0+deb9u1) ...
    Selecting previously unselected package postgresql-client.
    Preparing to unpack .../postgresql-client_9.6+181+deb9u1_all.deb ...
    Unpacking postgresql-client (9.6+181+deb9u1) ...
    Setting up libpq5:amd64 (9.6.7-0+deb9u1) ...
    Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u3) ...
    Setting up postgresql-client-common (181+deb9u1) ...
    Setting up postgresql-client-9.6 (9.6.7-0+deb9u1) ...
    update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/9.6/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode
    update-alternatives: error: error creating symbolic link '/usr/share/man/man7/ABORT.7.gz.dpkg-tmp': No such file or directory
    dpkg: error processing package postgresql-client-9.6 (--configure):
     subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of postgresql-client:
     postgresql-client depends on postgresql-client-9.6; however:
      Package postgresql-client-9.6 is not configured yet.

    dpkg: error processing package postgresql-client (--configure):
     dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     postgresql-client-9.6
     postgresql-client
    E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
    Exited with code 100

I've tried the following to fix:

    sudo apt-get purge postgr*
    sudo apt-get autoremove
    sudo apt-get install synaptic
    sudo apt-get update

from: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2277582

    which psql
    /usr/bin/psql

And

    more /etc/apt/sources.list
    deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main
    deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main
    deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main

I'm stumped on how to move forward.

Answer 1

I had the same problem with my CI build, and I found a workaround creating the folders like @A. Scherbaum mentioned.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/man/man1
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/man/man7
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

I found this solution in this commit through this issue

However I also did the test silencing the error like you said and It worked, but I don't know the consequences

sudo apt-get install postgresql-client || true

I found something similar in this circleci article